Cafe Salivation – Race Course Road

While vegetarian fare can be all boring and tasteless to some, times have pretty much changed and many food establishments had realised the ongoing trend of being vegan/vegetarian that they had also jumped onboard the bandwagon. Of course, their main point of focus is to provide more creative variety of cuisine to vegetarians/vegans that differs greatly from vegetarian food from the past, but also create an impression that vegetarian cuisine can be as tasty as non-vegetarian alternatives so that they are able to get a share of the bigger pie as well.

Cafe Salivation is a vegetarian restaurant that is located at Race Course Road which is pretty near Farrer Park MRT Station (provided if you walk from the right exit). It is owned by The Raj Group of Restaurants, which also owns Raj Restaurant (which is also a vegetarian restaurant) and it’s neighbour, Jade of India. Being the group’s and Little India’s first vegetarian and western restaurant, it has been serving up new and innovative forms of vegetarian cuisines in concepts unique to themselves.

(Iced French Vanilla)

The Iced French Vanilla is a milkshake made with vanilla beans and milk. It is very rich in flavour as the aroma of Vanilla spreads in your mouth after every sip. The only problem with the drink was that it was barely cold after a while because there was not enough ice blended into it.

(Mocha – Hot)

The Mocha had a very deep chocolate-y flavour. While it definitely was sweet enough, it might not really appeal to coffee lovers out there whom are into tasting the aroma of the beans used as there the coffee tasted quite light in contrast.

(Rosemary Potato Wedges)

While most places serves Potato Wedges fried, the Rosemary Potato Wedges is a roasted dish. This definitely made a refreshing and slightly more healthy impression of the commonly served dish. The potato wedges tasted very fresh, and it was decently spiced as the spices enhanced the flavour of the wedges by adding a dash of salt to the dish without overwhelming the potatoes in spices. The salad by the side was alao juicy and fresh, and definitely a refreshing side to the roasted potatoes.

(Walnut & Cheese Tortellini)

The Walnut & Cheese Tortellini may look slightly messy and could be unappealing in its presentation, but it was the dish that surprised us the most. The olives were juicy and accompanied by the salad dressing, it complimented the juicy vegetables by creating a slight sweet yet sour-ish taste to the salad, yet with a nice cheese flavour from the strong tasting Feta Cheese. The Tortellini is walnuts and cheese wrapped in pasta skin. Supposedly to be mock meat, it provided a firm texture and the nutty flavour with cheese was a taste that was simply memorable (and not in a bad way). The only thing that bugged me was the very worn out plate it was served on; do they have so little plates that they had to use this particular one?

(Grain a la Verdure)

The Gratin a la Verdure is a Baked Penne Pasta with cauliflower and mushrooms in tomato-based sauce. There was sufficient cheese to cover all the pasta and it melted to the extent that it was stringy but not stuck to the bowl. The only bad thing about this dish was that it was slightly greasy, or it would have been really impressive.

Pasta dishes are seemingly not the only dishes that are being served in this vegetarian cafe. They are also serving other innovative vegetarian cuisine such as burgers, rice sets and other oriental delicacies. While the food is definitely good, but the standard of service seems to vary. The second guy who served us was very passionate, enthusiastic and attentive and was constantly ensuring that we loved the food and if we needed anything. The first person who served us however came to take our orders with his arms folded and never bothered taking down the orders on paper but instead memorised everything (though he was able to memorise everything correctly when re-confirming with us). It was indeed a stark contrast between the two. While there is a discrepancy in the service standards, Cafe Salivation is somewhere that I would still recommend; it was really an eye opener on vegetarian cuisine. I would definitely return for a visit as I have got some items that I would want to try, though not so soon as it is located at a place that is really inconvenient for me.